162. (III.) Charity in the Officials under them. By the officials under magistrates are meant those who are appointed by them over the people to perform various necessary and useful functions. Everyone of them, if he looks to the Lord and shuns evils as sins, and sincerely, justly, and faithfully performs the work of his office, becomes charity in form, because he does the goods of use continually, while in the performance of official duty and also when not in official duty; for then an affection for doing it is established in his mind, and an affection for doing the goods of use is charity in its life. Use affects him, and not honor except for the sake of use. There is a certain lesser general good under each official, according to the extent of his function, subordinate to the greater and greatest general good, which is that of the kingdom or commonwealth. An official who is charity, when he sincerely, justly, and faithfully does his work, consults the less general good, which is that of his domain, and so the greater and the greatest. In other respects it is the same with the official as with the magistrate for whom he acts; with only the difference that there is between greater and less, wider and narrower, extension to uses in general and extension to uses in particular; and also that the one, as a servant, is dependent upon the other.